India, Russia sign 7 defence deals
As a result of year-long talks between the governments of India and Russia on availability of spare parts for defence equipment this country had bought from there, seven agreements were signed between Indian and Russian companies on Friday at the Defence Expo here, for indigenous manufacture.
The ministry of defence had identified 48 items covering all major platforms which can be made in India with Russian collaboration. The products to get support include helicopters, aircraft and naval systems.
In the Third India-Russia Military Industrial Conference between the two countries, held at Defexpo 18, the Indian manufacturers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) from Russia had discussion on the final aspects before the signing.
Larsen & Toubro signed one deal for various programmes of the navy and for Future Ready Combat Vehicles (FRCV) and rockets’ co-production on Indian territory. Ananth Technologies signed an agreement for opto-electronic sighting and navigation for Su-30MKI aircraft. Ananth also signed one to to set up technical and logistics support in India for the T90-S and T72 tanks in
service with the army.
Russian Company JSC AGAT signed agreements for after-sale support and modernisation of the Fregat radar, installed on our naval ships.
Ajay Kumar, secretary, defence production, said the first meet was in Delhi in March 2017, to address the issue of maintenance and lifecycle support of Russian-origin defence platforms in India, by facilitating production of spare parts in the country. Several procedural issues related to transfer of technology, setting up of joint ventures (JVs), intellectual property rights, and others have been discussed. Four platforms - 231 Mark-I aircraft, INS Vikramaditya, MiG29K aircraft and Mil Mi-17 helicopters - were identified for manufacturing of